Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Spanish Army captain leaves military after years of harassment

In Spain, an army captain who had a colonel thrown in jail for sexually harassing her has decided to leave the army after harassment from the colonel’s colleagues and friends became too much to bear.

Captain Zaida Cantera, who served in the Spanish contingent deployed in Kosovo and Lebanon, saw her career take an unexpected and unwelcome turn in 2012, when she took legal action against Colonel Isidro Jose de Lescano-Mujica for sexual harassment. He was sentenced to 2 years and 10 months in prison.

Members of the colonel’s command were displeased with Capt. Cantera, and shortly after the colonel’s conviction, she was accused of having manipulated the date on a document submitted during her application for promotion to commander (an offense punishable by up to six years in prison).

Eventually, an expert report showed that it was not Capt. Cantera who authored the falsification.The individuals involved in the falsification were subsequently charged by a military court, but the complaints were dismissed and they were cleared. One of them recently became a general.

Since then, Capt. Cantera’s military life was made difficult as friends of the colonel continued to harass her, seeking to drive her out of the military. Now they have their wish. She grew tired of the harassment and left the army.